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I think Atari already died a couple of times. It has name recognition, so it's probably not going to end up "really" dead for at least another decade or two, even if this restructuring doesn't pan out.

This is so unsurprising, I suspected something was up when the PC port of Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends took almost my entire life to show up. Also the last Atari game I've played, Test Drive Unlimited 2, also faced problems (such as Atari fucking over Eden Games) so, yeah. I have been saying for a while that it's insane that THQ was going down the pan yet Atari was still going, not to say I want to see Atari die (because I don't, as that helps no one) but at least THQ published some truly brilliant games.

"Atari is currently working on a new Pong game with Zynga"
That sounds like everything wrong with the industry right now. I don't think there is a single word in that sentence that would be termed "good". :P

Honestly didn't know they were still trading. They'll probably enter an Amiga-name-like undeath, being passed around desperate companies like cheap cigarettes in a prison yard. Can't say I have any feelings about it either way, really.

File for bankruptcy and sell everything off. The 'brand' goes somewhere, whilst the developing and publishing side of things falls.

Bankruptcy frees you from some debts:
Developers do not get the money the money they have been contracted for if it's due in future payments. Which means small developers published through Atari may have made games they'll never be paid for. This can ruin small devs.
Everything is sold off, but none of that goes to employees. Instead, employees are sacked without redundancy.

Top managerial staff will simply move on, or maybe just stay with whatever Atari becomes. Shareholders do fine: They get a lot of cash from the sale of the brand.

This will be the third time Atari's done this. It's an absolutely disgusting practice. Deliberately taking on debt they cannot meet under the safe knowledge that they can fuck over employees and contractors because the money to be made from the brand will save the shareholders.

"Atari is currently working on a new Pong game with Zynga"
That sounds like everything wrong with the industry right now. I don't think there is a single word in that sentence that would be termed "good". :P

"working"? :-p

- If the sound of Samuel Barber's "Adagio For Strings" makes you think of Kharak burning instead of the Vietnamese jungle, most of your youth happened during the 90s. -